Aon said it is investigating circumstances surrounding a missingcomputer disk with the names and personal information of about200,000 individuals working for Alcatel-Lucent.

On Thursday, Alcatel-Lucent, a Paris-based communicationscompany, said it sent an e-mail informing its employees thatbetween April 5 and May 3 a disk containing the name, address,Social Security number, date of birth and salary data of past andcurrent employees was either lost or stolen.

The company was notified on May 7 of the missing disk, and madethe loss public Thursday.

Alcatel-Lucent said the disk was prepared by Hewitt Associates,a human resource and consulting firm based in Lincolnshire, Ill.,and sent by Hewitt to Chicago-based Aon Corp.

In a statement Aon said, “Earlier this month, a CD-Rom disccontaining [the personnel] information–part of an ongoingconsulting assignment–was reported missing. To date, thecircumstances relating to how and when the disc was lost areunknown.

“Aon is currently participating in an ongoing investigation withour client and other parties into the circumstances of thisincident. It is important to clarify that neither Aon nor any ofthe other parties with whom we are collaborating on thisinvestigation have reached definitive conclusions about thesecircumstances.”

A spokesman said the company is making no additional comments onthe investigation. He indicated the firm is backing away fromearlier reports that it never received the disk while theinvestigation continues.

In addition to brokerage services, Aon operates consultingservices and underwriting under the Combined Insurance Company.

Alcatel-Lucent said it will provide the affected employees afull year of credit monitoring services for free. It emphasizedthat there is no evidence any of the information has been used.

The employees were informed by e-mail and letters were going outto all current and retired employees.

“We recognize that we have a responsibility to carefully protectthis type of information and deeply regret this loss,” said FrankD'Amelio, chief administrative officer for Alcatel-Lucent. He addedthe company is making sure a loss like this does not happenagain.